Chapter 8: Levicorpus Feels
Unedited...
"Sirius! What—Why—Let. Me. Go!"
"Stop whining, Williams!"
"But I don't want to go with you! You'll get me in trouble!"
"Oh, I will, without a doubt, but that's hardly a reason for you to go back to being boring?!" he grinned, not even having the courtesy to look back as he continued to drag her on.
When they landed on the foot of the stairs, however, he stopped dead in his tracks and turned his irritating face towards Isabella.
"What?" she asked.
"What, 'what'? Turn around, you're giving me a piggy-back ride to the Common Room, obviously," he said, shrugging matter-of-factly.
"I'm sorry, what?!"
"Good. Griffin! Would you just...!" but he chose not to finish his sentence and simply twirled her around and jumped up on her back like a monkey, instead.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL, SIRIUS!" she bellowed watching him wrap his legs around her waist and sheepishly grin back at her. "Why can't you just go down the way you came up?" she growled through gritted teeth.
"Because, the stupid stairway is magicked to ward off boys, genius! Also, only James knows the counter spell for it, so..." he smirked flagrantly, successfully getting on her last nerve.
Frowning frustratedly, she let out a nasty growl before stomping down the stairs. "Sirius, you're just... SUCH a prat!" she spat out, cursing the stars for ever having brought Sirius Orion Black into her life.
"I know. But, I'm also mind-wreckingly attractive though, so it cancels out," he said, chuckling into her ear, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She shot him an unforgiving side glance, fully ready to blast his face out of recognition, only to find her insides melting at his handsome face.
How could someone stir up such unspeakable emotions in places she cannot name AND make her want to clobber them dead at the same time? Almost immediately her thoughts drifted off to Ryan and her stomach squirmed uncomfortably in guilt. Was she cheating on him before they even started a relationship?
"Stop talking, Sirius," she said solemnly as she trudged down the second floor's landing.
"Why?" he whined and frowned petulantly before his eyes twinkled with mischief once more. "Afraid you'll fall irreversibly for my deep baritone?" he said cheekily. "Poor Evantrap, though... He'd snap like a twig, if he finds out!" he cackled away, completely oblivious to Isabella's current state of mind.
She was numb with fury now as she resentfully stomped down the stairs with a very heavy gorilla on her back. "Just shut up, Sirius! Argh! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"
Sirius whistled in her ear. "Add a bit more emotion and I'd be so turned on right now..." he said, most teasingly, making her wish the ground would swallow her right up!
'He really is bat-shit crazy!' she thought, heaving out a ton of air as she struggled under Sirius's weight. It wasn't as if this was new to her though—they always picked each other up as children when either of them got too tired running around. It was a problem NOW, however, because Sirius, the moron, had grown so much recently that, it was practically unthinkable to have his strong arms and wide shoulders hanging off one's neck in this fashion...
"Anyway, since we are on that subject, has he kissed you yet?" Sirius asked out of nowhere, catching her completely off guard.
Isabella rolled her eyes. "Do you always have to be so crude?"
"It's a simple yes or no ques—"
"No!"
She didn't know why that information should bring anyone so much joy, because the moment the word had left her lips, he burst out chuckling heartily into her neck. "I don't blame you. I wouldn't too if I were two years away from graduation and still had no experience in that department!"
"You're the biggest hypocrite. Like James has any more experience than I do!"
"Do you see me extolling him for being the knobhead that he is?" he asked in return. "In fact, Remus and I have a bet going on that James will, one day, die a virgin," he sniggered, spraying the side of her neck most unceremoniously.
Isabella snorted loudly. "You still think you're going to win that bet? Are you really that daft?"
"What d'you mean?"
"I... Well, I could be wrong, but do you not see something weird going on between Lily and James of late?"
"Weird? Like what?!" He gasped after giving it a second's thought. "D'you think they're secretly hooking up?!"
She merely shook her head and rolled her eyes sadly to herself. "Boys. You lot wouldn't know what's going on if it slammed into you like a train."
Something seemed to shift in him upon hearing that making him narrow his eyes at her. "That's only because you girls are so complicated," he retorted, suddenly sounding annoyed for some reason. He wound his hands tighter around her neck and stared blankly ahead before muttering, "We almost never know what's running in your head, do we?" this time looking straight into her eyes.
Time stopped in that instant as she stopped dead in her tracks.
Her stomach jolted uncomfortably as his grey eyes captured her large brown ones in a steely stare. The fluttering in her heart and the numbness in her legs could not begin to describe the trauma she was experiencing at the moment as the two of them continued to stare silently at each other. If he was implying what she thought he was implying, she didn't want to believe it... Because, that could never be true—he made that extremely clear to her not very long ago... "Pretty impressive, by the way," he said, finally breaking the spell, albeit never breaking off eye contact. "I half expected you to drop me in the third floor. You're not as frail as you look, you know," he smiled.
"I'm a whole lot of things now, Black," she breathed back.
"I can see."
At this point, she was sure she was positively going to faint if he kept this up. Huffing and puffing, she realised they were (thankfully) on the first floor already. Just a few more seconds of this ordeal and freedom is yours, Williams! she thought. Perhaps it was her desperation to not look like Sirius Black's personal 'slave' in front of her fellow House-mates, because, otherwise, there was no need for her to have hurried down the stairs, lost balance half way and ended up flying into the air with a hysterical Sirius screaming his lungs out for dear life!
"Aaaaaargh!"
"Mate, LOOK OUT!" yelled Thomas Walker, who was standing at entrance, watching the two of them tumbling down towards the bunch of boys.
Thomas dived forwards to catch them, while Martin, being a tad more sensible, dashed up the stairway to rescue them. Poor bloke didn't know what hit him, though, when a sudden klaxon-like sound resounded all around them and the steps melted together to make a long, smooth stone slide. All Isabella remembered after that was falling face-forwards into the dark, muscled arms of Martin Benkley, lots of yells, grunts, thuds and rolls before falling flat on her back with three other very masculine bodies scattered around her.
- O -
~oO 30 Minutes Later...
"Well, you two look like crap," James declared as Sirius and Isabella sauntered towards him, nursing several injuries and, indeed, looking like crap. "What happened?" he guffawed, while clumsily packing several large rolls of parchments into his backpack.
"Miss Hammer Toe here, incidentally forgot how to do stairs!" he said, staring pointedly at an inscrutable Isabella who joined them, rubbing the back of her head.
"Can we please not? You've done enough damage to last me a lifetime!"
"Pleeease!" he slurred, leaning against the balustrade and feeling very un-responsible for this situation. "Like Ryan was going to be your only love! Besides, do you honestly want to be bossed around like that?!"
Isabella blinked at him in disbelief. "He doesn't want me spending time with two of the biggest trouble-makers of the century for my own bloody good!"
"Like that's ever happening!" Sirius yelled back. "Like you're ever going to stop 'spending time' with me!"
"After what happened today, I'd very much look forward to it!"
"Yeah! Like tripping on yourself was my fault!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on. Ryan was there when... this... happened?" James asked gesturing at their knackered bodies.
"Sixth and seventh year lads in their usual spot," said Sirius, shrugging matter-of-factly.
"And he..."
"He was furious that Sirius had sneaked into the girls' dorm!" Isabella defended Ryan indignantly.
"Don't get cute!" Sirius guffawed in Isabella's direction. "He basically flipped thinking she and I were a thing!" he scoffed, laughing uncontrollably at James's bewildered expression.
"Well... Aren't you two... a thing?" he asked, grinning wildly at the scandalised pair.
A second passed when no one moved (or breathed).
"WHAT?!"
"Where did that come from?!"
"Yeah, why would you ever say something like that?!"
"Honestly...!"
Even Isabella would not have bought that had she been someone at the receiving end of these—well, so called—protests.
Still watching them curiously, James merely rolled his eyes. "Yeah. You two definitely are not," he said, nodding his head in obvious sarcasm. "Getting down to business, then. Do we have what we need?" he asked Sirius, who mutely pulled out the geometry box out of his pocket and brandished it in front of James's face.
"Yeah... I don't blame Ryan for thinking what he thought there, Pads," James said, staring wildly at the polka-dotted bra that Sirius was (also) holding in his hand. The colour that rose to Isabella's face in that instant would have put the Chinese dragon to shame as Sirius cracked up laughing most sheepishly.
"Reckon you're right there," he guffawed, admiring the craftsmanship on the tiny material. "Honestly, though. Are your buns really this small, Williams?" he added. James burst out laughing even harder at that whilst avoiding full eye contact with either of them while Isabella stood there feeling far too exposed to her liking.
Not wishing to answer that question in the slightest, she mutely grabbed Sirius's hand and stared into her watch strapped around his wrist. "Bugger. It's already past bedtime! What are we still doing out here?"
"Teaching someone a lesson. Now, hush, and get inside!" said James and held up a silvery, slimy cloak over his head.
She blinked. "And THAT is going to keep us from getting spotted?"
"You'll be surprised," James said grinning at her.
Never in her entire life had she ever imagined being wrapped inside an Invisibility Cloak till this second. Never. Not ever. So much that, she couldn't stop marvelling at the piece of fabric and gushed about it throughout their journey until James threatened to feed her straight to Argus Filch himself.
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. How very original," she said, looking unimpressed.
"It's the safest place on earth!" Sirius growled, bent double so as to keep his feet from showing.
"Where are Remus and Peter?" she asked.
"Remus is on Prefect-duty and Peter is asleep," James scoffed as they neared the bathroom.
As soon as they stepped inside and shut the door behind them, she jumped outside and stared at her two companions still under the cloak.
"You really are invisible!" she squealed for joy watching the strong bodies of James and Sirius reappear from behind the cloak. "That was the most fun I've had since forever!" she said, grinning from ear to ear.
"And you almost listened to Evantrap and went back to bed," Sirius said.
"Knock it off, Sirius!"
"Enough already! You two can go back to snogging after we're done with tonight, deal?" said James, looking irritated and amused at the same time.
"Visitors this late at night...?" someone crooned from inside, almost stopping Isabella's heart for a second.
"How many times do we have to ask you to not do that, Myrtle?!" she asked crossly as an irritable pearl-white ghost of Myrtle appeared from behind the cubicles.
"Why, forgive me for checking on intruders in my space!" she yelled back, causing Isabella to roll her eyes, while Sirius blew the ghost a kiss—as if that was going to dissuade the dead witch!
"Not today, Myrtle!" she growled back.
"Stop bullying poor Myrtle, you monster!" Sirius said, painfully shoving her away from his ghost-girlfriend.
Royally ignoring him, she mutely turned back to James. "Go on, then. What are we doing?" A hint of excitement coursing through her body.
"Okay, so we're inventing a new spell. And I'm not getting the angles right. Needed to perfect it, which was why..." he paused and grabbed the bra-free tool box from Sirius's hand and said, "we needed this," he said, pulling out the set square.
"And we needed you to keep watch!" Sirius said, folding his hands across his chest.
She immediately shook her head. "No way. Not if I have kiss Moaning Myrtle here!"
"How about if I tell James about that time you told me you like them 'big'?" Sirius wriggled his eyebrows triumphantly. Isabella's jaw dropped in disbelief while James could not have looked more thrilled than he did right now. That was low—even for Sirius!
"Oh, no!" James exclaimed dramatically, looking wide-eyed at Sirius as if he just envisioned the end of the world. "Drats, Evantrap is so doomed!" he said, laughing uncontrollably and in turn, making Sirius lose it entirely too.
She blinked back speechlessly while the two of them high-fived each other for reasons unknown to mankind and laughed on till eternity. "I shall leave before I let your imaginations get the better of you," she said loudly to no one in particular and twirled hotly on the spot as the boys continued to crack up in the back.
Grudgingly, she grabbed the Invisibility Cloak, threw it around herself and marched outside the door only to freeze on the spot in complete and indubitable fear. Just around the corner, flickering in the candle light, was the undeniable shadow of a group of people walking straight towards her. And soon enough, she saw the pointy hats of, none other than, Dumbledore and—wait for it—McGonagall...
Impeccable timing.
"...curious, indeed," she heard him say in the distant as the shadows grew bigger and bigger. "What's the death toll as of today?"
"About sixty-eight. But there will be more at the crack of dawn as he is known to make visits mostly at nights," said a burly man next to Dumbledore; he was an Auror, no doubt.
"He's right. And each one of these 'visits' either means he's gained a new follower or there's a new entry in the registry of wizard deaths!" spat out a tiny goblin hopping on the spot to keep pace with Dumbledore's long strides.
"Why does it all seem strikingly similar to the last time someone like this rose out of nowhere?" Dumbledore asked thoughtfully, now fully in Isabella's view. Despite the kind smile on his face, she could feel a mild sense of worry in his tone. "Anything else to report, Lorak?" he asked, looking down at the fierce expression on the goblin's face. Her heart was hammering in her chest now as they inched closer to where she stood.
Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead as full-blown panic took over. Pressing tightly against the door of the bathroom, she kept chanting 'Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet..." under her breath as a way of 'mind read'-ing her way into James's head. They had not discussed the terms of 'sounding the alert' neither did the two halfwits have the blooming decency to keep it quiet in there!
"He is not to be taken lightly, Dumbledore," replied Lorak, stopping dead in his tracks and, unfortunately, far too close to her leg. One tiny sneeze and he'd fall straight into her. Fear gripped her heart so much, she hardly breathed. "We don't know how, but ever since his emergence, a grim mood has descended on the country. Nothing seems right, nothing seems normal."
"What he means to say, Dumbledore, is that, Seers around the world are predicting an imminent apocalypse for the Magical community under this wizard's reign," said a tall, important-looking woman. When Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at her she quickly added, "I don't want to believe them, Dumbledore, but going by the position I hold in the Ministry, I ought to be concerned at least?"
"It's too early for that, Millicent," replied McGonagall, albeit not sounding particularly confident. Isabella had to do everything in her power to not scream out loud at the realization that, she was standing two feet away from Millicent Bagnold—the Minister of Magic! "This Lord Voldemort is no stranger to us. He was formerly a student here at Hogwarts! We taught him everything that he knows now, so I doubt if he would actually live up to the hype that he has created for himself."
And right at that very instant, a thud! sounded from behind her and her heart stopped beating.
Everyone's heads had snapped in the direction of the noise and were looking. Straight. At. Isabella.
"What was that...?" asked Lorak, the goblin, literally sniffing at Isabella's feet while Dumbledore peered curiously at the door too.
Alarm bells were jarring through her head now as she continued to stare back at the faces of the Ministry officials while a SECOND thud! sounded once more, this time a lot louder than the last!
"Is that a student out of bed?!" shrieked McGonagall, glaring daggers into Isabella's eyes. Bagnold had immediately raised a haughty eyebrow, as if questioning the discipline situation at the school.
Isabella didn't know if Magic was ending any time soon, but it was DEFINITELY apocalypse for the three of them at least.
Doing everything in her power to calm herself, she mustered up the courage to ball her hand into a fist and lightly knock once on the door, hoping and praying that her dumb friends would get the bleeding point!
McGonagall's eyes widened in shock and immediately shot towards Dumbledore as if she couldn't believe this was happening under her watch.
"This is preposterous. Students out of bed at this hour? Can I really rely on Hogwarts to be a safe-house, Dumbledore?" came the cold voice of Bagnold, making the situation slip further out of control.
"Allow me to get to the bottom of this, Mill..."
"I don't think there's any need for that, Minerva," said Dumbledore, making her stop dead in her tracks. Isabella couldn't thank her stars enough for that because, McGonagall's hand been mere inches away from her body when Dumbledore intervened.
"What do you mean, Albus?"
"I mean that's not a student in there, it's Filch. He has been complaining about the leaking pipes in the girls' bathroom for weeks now. I think it's best if we simply left him to it," he said, smiling slightly at the confused group and already steering them away from the corner (McGonagall, though, looked like she didn't want to veer away from the crime site just yet, still eyeing the bathroom suspiciously). "It's like they say, a man's plumbing is no one's business, but his own," he said, chuckling lightly to himself and leading the group down the passage. Isabella's legs had lost all sensation now, as she watched with awe at her luck.
And just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, however, she heard Dumbledore say, "So to answer your question, Millicent, yes, Hogwarts is and will continue to be the safest place for students." Placing particular emphasis on the last word, he turned around just a little and stared directly at an invisible Isabella. Raising his eyebrows at her as if to say, 'You better not prove me wrong there,' he slowly turned back to the group and joined in on the conversation as if nothing odd had ever taken place.
As she heard their steps echo away into the darkness, she slowly turned around, having gone white in the face after that close call. Turning the door knob as slowly as possible, she slowly opened the door as noiselessly as possible and sneaked into the old bathroom, her legs wobbling uncontrollably.
"All good?" asked a very calm James, leaning against the circular sink at the centre of the bathroom.
"I'm. Never. Sneaking out. With you two. Ever. Again," she said, trying to sound as calm as possible, despite the volcanic rage brewing inside of her.
"Like that's ever a possibility after today," guffawed Sirius and exchanged a cheeky glance with James, who seemed to agree with him. "You're our lucky charm!" he added through his teeth, giving her cheeks a good pinch, as if coddling a baby. "Is it time?" he asked, smacking his hands together and getting ready for action, as if NOTHING worthy of panicking had ever taken place a second ago. How are these two this put-together under pressure?
"Do you not realise we almost got caught red-handed by McGonagall?" she asked.
"In seven minutes, exactly. We should get a move on," James declared and gathered up his things, ignoring her comment completely.
"What's happening in seven minutes?" she asked, positively ridden with panic now.
"What should've ideally happened last night," he replied, shouldering his bag and dragging her out of the bathroom by her hand.
"James..."
"Relax, Izzy," he said and stepped outside, this time, not even bothering with the Invisibility Cloak.
"Are we TRYING to get caught...?"
James scoffed. "The path is clear, we checked already," was his only response. She was going to ask him how he had managed to 'check' maybe later sometime.
Making sure she was always sandwiched between James and Sirius, she followed them on tip-toe, regretting ever having agreed to come on this journey. Isabella's heart rate was perpetually high, so much so that, she didn't even register where they were headed and simply followed the boys; the longer they roamed the castle, the more worried she got. As they finally rounded a corner, however, she suddenly heard voices and froze in pure, veritable fear.
"...how are we supposed to complete the Dream Interpretations if we don't even get to sleep?" a girl's voice came floating towards them.
"Or if we only have nightmares, night after night?" replied a boy.
Before she could even BEGIN to identify the voices, however, she came face-to-face with several faces that she was NOT expecting to see on this suicide mission: Lily, Remus—and Severus. It was a Mexican Stand-Off as everyone stopped dead in their tracks, having merged at the same spot at the same time from different locations.
"What's this...?" asked a dumbfounded Severus, staring blankly at everyone around him. "Why are they are all here?"
"What do you mean, 'why are they all here?' Why are you here?" Lily asked him, looking equally confused. "And you lot!" she said, glaring at three of them now. "What's going on? Remus? Did you know about this?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
He sighed, looking extremely uncomfortable. "I..." he began.
"Let me explain..." James cut in.
"Good Griffin, did you send me that letter, asking me to meet Lily here tonight?!" Severus asked shakily.
"What, in Merlin's name, is going on...?" asked Lily, suddenly sounding scared, but Severus seemed to have caught on.
"Are you here for me, Potter? Is this your idea of ambushing me in the dead of the night, all singled out and defenseless?" he asked, now closing in on an unconcerned James. "Funny, how you thought you needed a posse, though. A bunch of Gryffindors against ONE Slytherin!" he guffawed, smirking at them. "Thought I'd cower in fear, did you?"
"Don't you, always?"
He guffawed. "You Lions don't intimidate me. You can't threaten me into submission!"
"No, but it would be nice if you had the decency of staying as far away from Evans as possible, going forward," he said, oozing with casual confidence that only made Isabella that much more nervous. "With everything that's going on outside of these walls, even as we speak, I don't think I can afford seeing her get involved with the likes of you just because you fail as a friend every now and then!" he spat out, swiftly pulling his wand out.
"I must commend you, Potter," Severus started, curling his lips in malice. "I've never met another person capable of insulting, accusing and belittling someone at the same time, like you do."
"Something I'm very proud of," James replied.
"Okay, I think we've had enough trash-talk for the night...!"
"Not quite, Evans."
"Don't be an idiot, Potter!"
"I'm not afraid of him, Lily!" growled Severus.
"What's the word, Snivelly? Do we understand each other or not?"
"I'm not taking orders from you, not today, not ever!" he yelled, glaring daggers at James.
"I thought you might say that," James scoffed, gripping his wand tighter now. Isabella unconsciously reached for Sirius's hand for support—this is not going well, at all. "Perhaps, a change of view?"
Before Isabella could even yell his name out and ask him to stop with this madness already, James had pointed his wand straight at an unsuspecting Severus and flicked it casually.
In the blink of an eye, Severus's leg flew upwards, taking his whole body with it, until he was dangling upside down in midair as though an invisible hook had hoisted him up by the ankle.
Lily almost let out a scream watching her friend thrashing and kicking in mid-air, trying to 'dislodge' himself while James coldly watched on.
"Are you out of your mind? Get him down THIS instant, Potter!" Lily yelled, making her voice echo through the silent castle.
"Get him to leave you alone, then," he growled in her direction.
"Who are YOU to decide that?" she yelled back. "I never asked for your help, neither do I want you 'looking out' for me! Do you NOT understand that you mean nothing to me, Potter?" she bellowed and Isabella's eyes flew open. Only then, did she realise her hand was clasped tightly in Sirius's. "Now, get him down before I call on the professors...!"
"That won't be necessary," said someone from behind them.
Everyone turned around, shocked beyond expression. At the end of the corridor, basking in the moonlight was reposeful figure of their Headmaster.
